“The study tackles the most important questions like: What video format is most used by brands, and which video format brings the most interactions? These findings not only try to answer these questions but also want to provide valuable insights for marketers in order to boost their reach and interactions on Facebook.”

Quintly analysed 187,000 pages and 7.5 million posts between January 2017 and July 2017. It found that native videos make up 92 per cent of all videos published to Facebook.

Therefore, it appears as though most brands now recognise the importance of uploading natively to Facebook. So much so that they might want to consider ditching other platforms like YouTube altogether.

A closer look at videos on Facebook

Videos on Facebook are on the up across the board. Nearly every second Facebook profile (48 per cent) uploaded a video to their timeline. This is to the detriment of alternative platforms like YouTube, whose share of pages declined to 26 per cent or three times less than Facebook native videos.

It’s not good news for Vimeo either, which has virtually vanished from Facebook timelines, receiving just a one per cent share. Other video formats combined make up 6 per cent.

“The rise of this video usage is not really surprising, especially when you think of how your own Facebook timeline looks. It is visible in nearly every timeline,” says Herrmann.

Engaging users with Facebook native videos

Video has enjoyed phenomenal social media success as a content medium in recent times because it grabs the attention of audiences, engages their interest, and encourages action.

Facebook is particularly good at this, with native videos receiving on average 168 per cent more interactions than YouTube videos. This rose even higher to 304 per cent in July 2017.

It’s a similar story when looking at the number of shares Facebook native and YouTube videos receive. For example, the former had on average a 477 per cent higher share rate compared to the latter.

When it comes to comments, Facebook native video encourages five times more people to comment on its videos.

Key takeaways

“A crucial takeaway from this study is that Facebook native videos are the dominant video format on Facebook,” adds Herrmann.

“Therefore, it is not really surprising that the numbers not only show that is the favourite type of video format across all pages, but also that using this format can be beneficial to increasing the amount of shares and overall interactions.”

Quintly quite rightly recommends that brands should only use videos that are directly uploaded on Facebook, chiefly because other formats generally receive much lower engagement levels. Even if YouTube is more convenient, this could hamper your overall social media marketing performance.